'Skeleton lover' report sparks inquiry

Share this article

Seven police detention centre staff are suspected of criminal conduct after several detainees, including a woman recently convicted for keeping bones in her flat, complained of mistreatment.

The 37-year-old woman who was convicted of “violating the peace of the dead" after keeping hundreds of human bones in her Gothenburg apartment reported the police who arrested her to the Swedish Parliamentary Ombudsman (Justitieombudsmännen) earlier this week.

She cited rough treatment and denigrating comments in her complaint.

According to newspaper Göteborgs-Posten (GP), several other individuals have also experienced inhumane and degrading treatment at the detention facility in Mölndal, near Gothenburg in western Sweden.

At least one other woman has filed a complaint with the Ombudsman.

Now, seven people working at the detention facility are suspected of criminal conduct. Two of them are police officers and five are civilian staff members.

A preliminary investigation is underway and the seven suspects have been transferred to new posts.

"We cannot rule out that crimes have been committed," said Bertil Claesson, head of the local criminal investigation department.

The 37-year-old "skeleton lover" claimed that she was forced to strip in front of several police officers and was then handed a thin blanket, which became her only cover once she was taken to the cell.

“I felt incredibly violated when I had to stand there naked being stared at,” the woman wrote in her complaint to the Ombudsman.

The other woman who filed a complaint with the Ombudsman told GP that she was forced to strip naked and then remain without clothes for 72 hours.

Story continues below…

Making detainees strip down and remain naked is "highly unusual", said Claesson.

"There are judgment calls that differ from case to case depending on how suicidal the person is," he said.